Canal Winchester pastor writes book of hope after struggling with some personal issues

CANAL WINCHESTER — X Church Executive Pastor Russ Moore's new book "Hope for the Wilderness" is personal to him. Literally.

"It is a book that interlaces some of my personal story with some of the story of the children of Israel," he said. "And it brings principles out of both to help anybody going through a really tough time. The whole concept deals with everybody in life goes through wilderness seasons. But how we navigate those wilderness seasons determines everything."

Moore said the book is one of hope.

"Everybody goes through personal wilderness times," he said. "And collectively, the last 18 months we've been kind of a global wilderness."

Moore started working on the book about five years ago and said it is timely to release it now in light of the past 18 months or so. However, he said a lot of his personal wilderness season was internal.

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"Depression runs in my dad's side of the family," Moore said. "So I went through some seasons of depression, some seasons where I had to get counseling. I was in Lexington, Kentucky, for five years as part of a church plant and there was a lot of pain and turmoil that came out of the end of that. A lot of brokenness that came out of the end of that."

Moore moved on to a church in Atlanta and said the toll and pain of working in the ministry took a toll on him along with the depression and other issues he was facing.

"For me, I just went through a season where a lot of things inside that I've kind of suppressed or ignored or minimized all came together in a perfect storm in one season where I kind of hit a wall," Moore said.

While he had been working on "Hope for the Wilderness" for five years, Moore said he decided he had to finish it while under COVID-19 quarantine.

"My opinion, the most needed thing in the universe now is hope," he said. "I feel it's the thing we most desperately need. With hope, we die without it."

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Therefore, Moore writes about how to be more hopeful.

"No. 1 is that hope is attached to vision," he said. "So hope only exists in the future. You can't hope for something you already have. So one of the really practical ways to build your hope is to increase your vision."

Moore said that entails looking into the future with visions of family, finances, faith, and emotions.

"Because the more that you can increase your vision for the future the more you can fill your tank with hope today," he said.

Moore said hope is a choice, or a decision to be hopeful.

He said there were some days when the writing process was easy and other times when it was not. Moore said editing and marketing the book were most difficult parts of the project.

"If you really have a love of writing you think about the writing," he said. "You never think about that fact that you're going to have to sell it. So, editing was brutal. But I prepared myself for that because I wanted it to be great. I wanted it to be well written."

Moore said he has enjoyed hearing feedback from readers who tell him how it has changed their lives or how they view God.

"That's the whole point of why I wrote the book," he said.

"Hope for the Wilderness" is available for purchase at the X Church at 6600 Bigerton Bend and at most online booksellers.

jbarron@gannett.com

740-304-9296

Twitter: @JeffDBarron

This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Pastor writes book of hope after struggling with some personal issues